Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is staging one of the fastest traffic recoveries on the continent, Airports Council International Europe (ACI) has said, with passenger performance "significantly outperforming the European average". In June, the airport's passenger figures were down just 30% on the same month in 2019, while charter traffic will exceed the pre-pandemic record by 3%. Furthermore, the number of routes on offer from Belgrade this summer stands at 71, just one short of 2019. “There are encouraging signals. If you look at our figures, you can see that Belgrade Airport has significantly outperformed the European average in the recovery of traffic, which stands at just 30% of 2019 levels. The road to recovery will be long, but it is already very clear that it is faster for Belgrade Airport than others, which also reflects the achievements of Serbia with dealing with the pandemic”, the Director General of ACI Europe, Olivier Jankovec, said. He added, “Looking ahead, we see Belgrade Airport positioning itself as an important hub for Eastern Europe, working closely in an integrated manner with Air Serbia, as well as other airlines with the goal to increase the country’s connectivity”.
Commenting on developments at the airport, Nicolas Notebaert, the President of operator VINCI Airports and the CEO of VINCI Concessions, said, “Instead of being discouraged by the pandemic, the government gave us a lot of energy, telling us we need to be the first to recover, that we need to welcome tourists and partner with other countries. The industry is feeling the change happening at Belgrade Airport, with the government, Air Serbia and other airlines all working together. Belgrade Airport is now a modern one, and a modern airport is attractive to airlines. As a partner to 250 carriers in the world, VINCI is looking to make the most out of the recovery ahead, while looking forward to a good summer season, driven by an excellent vaccination program and vaccine supply by the government of Serbia”.
The airport is preparing for the return to a greater volume of traffic as it continues to progress in its multi million-euro expansion project. Work on the new Pier C extension is continuing as planned, with the expanded facility to be completed and opened to the pubic by the end of the year. A number of new airbridges have been installed, with more to come. Work on the new solid waste treatment plant is already completed, which will result in the recycling of all of the airport’s solid waste by the end of next year. The airport has finished work on a new apron for aircraft parking and opened new bus gates. Over 36.000 square metres of new apron space has already been built, with a further 27.000 to be completed by October. A new remote car park, with the capacity to handle over 1.500 cars, has also been finished, while construction of a new car park for 800 vehicles, to be located in front of the terminal, will begin soon. Work on a new solar power farm is ongoing and will be concluded by the end of the year, which will allow for the airport to switch to less polluting energy sources by next winter. In addition, the airport is finalising the construction of a wastewater treatment plant. Preparatory work on the new inserted runway is underway. Upon the completion of the entire project, scheduled for late 2023, the size of the terminal building will increase from 55.000 square metres to over 100.000 square metres, while passenger capacity will grow by six million to fourteen million passengers.
New airbridges
New control tower
Pier C extension - new bus gates
Pier C expansion - departures
Pier C extension - exterior
Well done. Looks great!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations
ReplyDeleteI like the look of the new expansion. It's also good to see they coordinated the airbridges to match the existing ones.
ReplyDeleteIt's the same manufacturer.
DeleteHa they installed travelators :D nice
ReplyDeleteThis new terminal looks very cheap inside.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't look cheap to me at all.
DeleteWhat makes you say that Anon 09.08? You do realize that the inside is not finished or do you know more than we do and you don't want to share that with us?
DeleteDoesn't look cheap to me. I love the green-blue carpet at new departure gates in the picture. Carpets are a nice, calming, homey touch many new airports lack. Well done!
DeletePersonally, not a fan of carpet but I think the expansion looks great.
DeleteI love the wooden floors, reminds me of Nordic airports.
DeleteIt looks cheap also to me. If you look at the floor tiles with large "fuge", you can understand that we are talking about a very cheap option. The whole new signs designs doesn't follow any of the BEG's good tradition. Its a blend design without identity. However, all Vinci's airports seriously lack any good design and quality of materials.
DeleteThe signs do follow the concessionaire's general "look" - you can see the same sign design across Vinci's airports.
DeleteI was looking for the part in the article where it says "we will renovate the run-down existing WC facilities" or "we will re-open the taxi stands" so passengers will not get RIPPED OFF by the taxi mafia guys standing at the arrivals gate charging 50 euro for a ride downtown.
ReplyDeleteBe hopeful.
DeleteIt will be regulated. Taxis will no longer be in front of the terminal. They will all be located near the remote car park and called up.
DeleteWhen? Any idea?
DeleteWell the car park is completed and they haven't opened it because of corona, ie they thought there would not be the need to use it for now. But since they will demolish the existing car park soon, I assume it will be in use by the end of the year.
DeleteHuge fan of carpets in some areas like departure gates. Just look at new New York LaGuardia terminal, it has custom design carpets in many areas.
DeleteSeems like bus gates will play a more prominent role at BEG than they have up until now.
ReplyDeleteWhat does C.10d mean?
ReplyDeleteIt is bus gate 10D. So there will be C10A, C10B, C10C, C10D...
DeleteIt follows the same patter from the current terminal for bus gates - A7A, A7B...
Delete*pattern
DeleteThat's totally stupid.
DeleteBus gates should have a different numbering altogether.
I get the first and last letters refer to bus gates, but does the 10 mean that boarding is at or below gate C10 for all of the C bus gates?
DeleteWell, you can thank the old management for that.
DeleteBelow C10, but it goes under several gates.
DeleteJust like now with A4a, A4b, A7a, A7b. I agree, they should be B gates or something like that.
DeleteBtw anyone noticed how airbridges will be up to C14 which means in the future they plan on adding airbridges behind?
Yes, it has been mentioned here many times that when they open this at the end of the year they start the construction of a further extension of the new C pier which will be done by 2023 when the whole project will be completed.
DeleteThere used to be D-designation for bus gates back in the eighties.
DeleteIt should be to C17. And bus gates cannot be B7 instead of A7a because there is also B apron
Delete@ 09,19
DeleteThe old management had 2 gates with that numbering. The new management could of easily changed that.
@ A
Numbering the gates inside the terminal does not have to match the aircraft parking positions numbers. DXB is an example of this.
So that means BEG will have around 100.000 passengers in June?
ReplyDeleteMuch more than that. In May they had around 150.000
DeleteIn June 2019 they had around 450.000 passengers if I am not wrong so this year numbers should be close to 300.000.
DeleteMy friend, in June 2019 BEG had over 600.000 passengers so it is estimated that this June there were 421.800 passengers.
DeleteVery good!
ReplyDelete"construction of a new car park for 800 vehicles, to be located in front of the terminal"... Where exactly?
Ps. That gate sign C. 1od is a bit confusing, people get lost reading C. 10 let alone little "d" :))))
Where the current car par is.
DeleteRemote parking is on roundabout 2km after Jat technics. And near terminal you've got few parking places, near building near cargo warehouse etc
DeleteTraffic is really booming at the moment, all things considered.
ReplyDeleteWhen new C gates open by year end, will they have security checkpoints at each gate like current gates, or will they use centralized security?
ReplyDeleteI think the plan is to have centralized security by then.
DeleteFor centralized security to be implemented, third level for arriving passengers have to be connected to current central terminal, gates C1-C6 will have to be enabled for arriving passengers to go one level up and then centralized area where arriving passengers go down 2 levels to passenger control has to be built. Looking forward to see all of it being implemented by year end.
DeleteI guess centralised security will not be ready by then, but anyway there will be centralised check in for whole C extension where is currently check for gates C5-C7
DeleteDepartures for tomorrow:
ReplyDeleteBEG 91
SKG 79
BUD 77
SOF 52
TIA 52
SPU 49
ZAG 40
09:23 these numbers are very interesting to look at as it gives a better picture of the overall recovery in the region. While the ZAG numbers are relatively low, when combined with DBV they jump up quite a bit. If JU gets its act together, both INI an KVO will bring Serbia's daily numbers to over 100.
DeleteEven on the slowest day BEG has around 66 departures which is great. In the past Tuesday was a disaster with like 20 flights.
DeleteTurboprop departures?
DeleteNot more than 10.
DeleteHow many of ZAG flights are PSO flights?
DeleteI think around 30% for PSO in ZAG.
DeleteAs for turboprops in Belgrade, besides JU only RO uses them on scheduled flights. All others have upgraded to jet aircraft.
Luxair uses a turboprop too. Windrose occasionally. A few days ago there was an ATR from Windrose in Belgrade.
DeleteForgot about Luxair. Windrose sends the ATR when loads are good and when the E145 is too small.
DeleteBelgrade will have 73 flights this Saturday, three A321 on FRA-BEG.
DeleteDid not expect to recovery to be this quick. Not saying its completed but these are very encouraging trends.
ReplyDeleteNow we know that new terminal central hall will be ready by the end of 2023. First peak season when passengers will be able to experience it is three years from now, summer of 2024. That's 3 very long years but at least we now have a firm date. New terminal was promised in 2013. Who knew it would take a decade to deliver.
ReplyDeleteNo, it says it will be completed by 2023, meaning the beginning of 2023 not the end.
DeleteC extension as well as the renovation of A1-A4 will expand the offered facilities making it easier to wait for the central hall to be ready. I am curious to see if there will be anything besides gates in the new C area. I hope there will be at least one shop or coffeeshop since the central will be quite far from the gates and the end. Even FRA at its Z gates has some small shops all the way at the end.
DeleteOn the signage in the photos you can see "restaurants", "duty free"
DeleteBeginning of 2013 is just 18 months away. I would be shocked to see new terminal central hall completed and operational in just 18 months. Today's article says end of 2013 which is more realistic.
DeleteThey have already started preparations for it. The area where it is going to be built is all dug up now.
DeletePlus they closed the road from the departures towards the highway where the building will be expanded.
DeleteLet's get over this once and for all: „Novi terminal biće završen do 2024. godine, a površina sa sadašnjih 55.000 kvadratnih metara biće povećana na više od 100.000 kvadratnih metara“, kazala je Brnabić.
DeleteNew Terminal Processor Extension or simply New terminal hall will be finished by 2024, i.e. summer of 2024 will be the first peak season for passengers to experience it. Now you know.
This C bus gates look very, very, good and that is good approach for development of BEG airport. But also, they need ASAP to deal with current situation at other parts which are in terrible condition. I have been at the airport few days ago garbage is everywhere, half of unites at toilets does not work, it is extremely hot,and as we can reed in latest trip report those A gates at terminal 1 are also bad.
ReplyDeleteThat whole area will get reconstructed. I agree with you that currently the airport is not in good shape. The situation is like that because half of the gates are closed for reconstruction, they have to close air-conditioning in that part of the airport because of it. As for toilet cleanliness I agree.
DeleteWhen will be the control tower finished?
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the year and fully operational within five months of completion since equipment has to be installed and tested.
DeleteBelgrade's time is only coming now.
ReplyDeleteMt favorite feature in the whole project is that huge park area in front of the new extension.
ReplyDeleteWanted to say *my. I hope they somehow connect it to the aviation museum.
DeleteThe new part looks very lacklustre. To be honest, I expected much more from Vinci...
ReplyDeleteActually all their airports look very similar, with similar interior design and signage.
DeleteSeems like things are looking up for BEG. Lufthansa was supposed to boost FRA-BEG from the 12th but extra flights start from today!
ReplyDeleteToday there are three LH FRA-BEG flights and four tomorrow!
wow nice
DeleteWhen are these A and C gates going to open?
ReplyDeleteIt says in the text at the end of the year.
DeleteI estimate that BEG is at 1.3 to 1.4 million so far in H1.
ReplyDeleteNot bad
DeleteLove it
ReplyDeleteNobody say nothing about place for onlookers.
ReplyDeleteHard to belive, invesment of 750 milions euros not includ such small equipment. New looking Belgrade Airport deserve! Welcome to the future at Belgrade International Nikola Tesla Airport.
Rodney.
Rođo biće valjda i toga. Na planovima je ucrtan Arrivals Gallery iznad postojećih C gejtova.
DeleteAll people concerned about "we need new departure hall with centralized security" just to say that VINCI expects that, once when all works from Phase 1 are completed and BEG is having capacity of 14 million pax per year, only 7 million are supposed to be starting their journey from BEG, other 7 transfers only, a.k.a no need for security check in such a big volume. Thats why they are slower with central hall.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, wooden floors? Some people checked them already and they are horrible for maintenance as shoes leave skid marks as soon as they touch them.
All in all, amazing recovery, great extension work, around 410.000 pax in June 2021, and can't wait for new C extension to open so we can park 5 widebodies one next to another.
Bear in mind - 5 widebodies per rotation need 15 narrowbodies for transfers :)
And thats going to be amazing
Thats why exoecyed traffic is 14 million.
If JU plays smart, BEG will need new extension sooner than 2035
Old people say that Terminal 2 had central security check long time ago. It was in the area where current departing border passport control is. Central security can be done without a new hall.
DeleteBEG used to have 2 security points. 1 before passport control and 1 at the gate. This was changed several years ago to what we have today. So not necessarily old people remember this :)
DeleteCentral security cannot be done until they seperate arrival pax from departing. Thats why the security control remains at the gates.
New hall will be needed because it was tight before, giving a smaller, cluttered feel. Pax numbers have increased in the mean time.
What old people what are you taking about??? Security at Terminal 2 before passports was there when I started flying in 2010! Only 10 years ago!
DeleteIt was so hideous :) you have security there and then one more time at the gate haha
Once upon a time, security at each gate did not exist. Legend says only a central security existed. Historians are still working on this but they know it was during previous millennium.
Deleteahahahahah ....
DeleteLet`s not forget once upon a time there was a security control at the entrance of the airport. You couldn`t get into the building without being screened. ;)
DeleteTrue, it was located in today's Terminal 1 and once you passed it you went through the corridor to the check-in area.
DeleteDoes anyone know what was BEG result in June 2019?
ReplyDelete600.000
DeleteThanks
DeleteWell fone Belgrade. Nice to see some airports in such a fast recovery.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the photos looks good
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good result.
ReplyDeleteSKP, PRN, DBV, SPU, ZAG, LJU all have new, nice and much better than before terminals, but BEG remains the only one real, big and classy airport in the entire ex-yu. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly makes BEG better than the rest?
DeleteSize of the terminals, numbers of passengers, numbers of airlines operating, numbers of destinations, less seasonality than others, relatively strong home base carrier, decent management... Enough?
DeleteI see now, thanks.
DeleteTalking of cool things, Indigo flight 6E 9450 operating DEL-IST-BEG is expected to land at BEG at 00.05! In 24 hours there are two flights from New Delhi, who would have thought.
DeleteThere is also another SpiceJet flight tonight.
DeleteWhere will be the observation deck located?
ReplyDeleteThey never mentioned they will have one. The terminal is in glass so you have pretty good views anyway.
DeleteBelgrades recovery is also a success story for Star Alliance - Lufthansa, Swiss and LOT performances are as good or even better than before the pandemic .
ReplyDeleteAlso Austrian this time uses the Embraers which are far superior than the Dashs .
Hopefully they become three times daily in august .
Turkish Airlines still has to become double daily which will happen probably next year .
Only TAP is missing which is a lost opportunity as the pandemic would have been their chance to catch the Portugal market before Air Serbia or an lcc does .
Skyteam is a welcome alternative but still has a lot of work to get done before it can effectively compete with Star .
And last and least Oneworld is practically nonexistent which is a whole story of its own ..
OS is three daily on some days.
DeleteOdlično se oporavlja Beogradski aerodrom,dobar podao radi Vansi. JU opet pojačava letove ka Crnoj Gori,određenim danima i do 8X do Tivta,sledeće nedelje kreću svakodnevno do Beča,Oslo ide 4X.
ReplyDeleteYou can almost feel the shift on European and Global air transportation level towards East. I know significant numbers of passengers are coming mainly from diaspora in the West this summer, but this Reno is done for the expansion towards East. But by 2023-24 it will be significant change in terms of business traffic towards China, Kazakhstan, new transport corridor in development North – South (Moscow-Baku- Yerevan-Teheran)
ReplyDeleteNothing strange with that. Global economic shift has moved to the East so aviation is just following that.
Delete